Problem: Ashley is 3 times as old as Vanessa. Sixteen years ago, Ashley was 7 times as old as Vanessa. How old is Vanessa now?
We can use the given information to write down two equations that describe the ages of Ashley and Vanessa. Let Ashley's current age be $a$ and Vanessa's current age be $v$ The information in the first sentence can be expressed in the following equation: $a = 3v$ Sixteen years ago, Ashley was $a - 16$ years old, and Vanessa was $v - 16$ years old. The information in the second sentence can be expressed in the following equation: $a - 16 = 7(v - 16)$ Now we have two independent equations, and we can solve for our two unknowns. Because we are looking for $v$ , it might be easiest to use our first equation for $a$ and substitute it into our second equation. Our first equation is: $a = 3v$ . Substituting this into our second equation, we get: $3v$ $-$ $16 = 7(v - 16)$ which combines the information about $v$ from both of our original equations. Simplifying the right side of this equation, we get: $3 v - 16 = 7 v - 112$ Solving for $v$ , we get: $4 v = 96.$ $v = 24$.